Snake Opera
by loopycathair
Summary: Erik realizing the futility of persuing Christine finds comfort often comes from the strangest sources. A creature claiming to have resided in his opera house all it's life provides a second chance. Erik/OC


CHAPTER ONE: A SHINY ROCK FOR MY HUMAN

He was decidedly the most handsome human male Vira had ever seen. Or at least the only half of his face that wasn't covered by the white mask was handsome. Vira had watched him her entire life as he sneaked through his dark corridors and left notes to torment his managers, as he composed his great operas and spoke with his only friend Madame Giry, she had watched when years ago as a child with only a sack over his head and a pair of pants on he had appeared in her catacombs to live under her opera house. Not that he had ever met her or even guessed about her existence, no one knew she was there. She never starved there were always plenty of rats to eat.

And from time to time she got lonely and visited him while he played his organ with such skill she had never heard from any other human musician although she did not often listen to the music made above ground in her opera house. The music they made was not at all to her taste it was far too harsh and grating not at all like her human's soft pleading melodies.

Vira didn't like the cold at all, and she wasn't very fond of being wet either but she would have to cross the lake because that night her human had been acting strange. He would start to sing a song full of joy and then break down crying screaming that it was impossible and that Christine would never love him. Now Vira did not know exactly what "it" was but she knew that Christine was a name for a human female and assumed he was finally trying to find a mate and perhaps his attempt at courtship had been rejected. Vira did not have much experience in mating or courtship seeing as she had only just come of age but she understood the feeling of rejection.

When Vira had hatched her parents had been appalled. Theirs was a pureblood family of Black Water Vipers and their coloring had been completely black for generations so as you can imagine when Vira was born albino white with startlingly red eyes her mother had been deeply ashamed, her father totally disgusted, and her older brothers and sisters terrified. Her father had been so disgusted in fact that he had bitten Vira's mother injecting deadly venom into her veins, had called her a slut and had left for good. Her mother began to cry and all Vira's brothers and sisters had crowded around her to try to help her mother who was so filled with hatred that she had devoured all her children except for Vira who had by that time slithered into the shadows to hide. Vira being only a hatchling was horrified and confused, she did not understand at all, instinct told her that the serpent that had driven away her father and devoured her family was her mother and that her mother should be providing food for her. But her mother had eaten her family and therefore was a serious threat to her survival but what could she do she was far too young to hunt and saw no ready meal prepared for her. So Vira sat in the shadows and waited.

After a few hours her mother had died and coming to the only conclusion that made sense Vira reasoned that perhaps her mother was providing food for Vira by dying and that was why her mother had eaten the rest of her family because she wanted Vira to have a better chance at survival. This seemed reasonable though Vira wondered how her species managed to continue if every mother ate all but one of her children.

This reasoned out Vira had exited the shadows and approached the corpse which bulged with the dead bodies of her brothers and sisters and began to eat. When she had had her fill Vira had found a hole in the wall and went to sleep. She woke each morning ate from the corpse that had been her mother, and explored her domain. That was how she spent her days for a week or two until the corpse began to rot and Vira was big enough to hunt for herself, actually she was extremely well fed for a hatchling because if her brothers and sisters and mother were still alive she would most likely have been starved to death because of the vast number of hatchlings that had been born before her. So in her mother's attempt to murder Vira she had actually ensured her survival.

This was of course before Erik and Madame Giry had arrived at her opera house. By the time they appeared Vira knew the entirety of her domain by memory and never got lost and had found all the secret passageways that led above ground. She didn't particularly like the above ground part of her home but she went up occasionally to sit in a patch of sunlight in the rafters as she watched the chorus girls and the Prima Donna dance and sing across the stage. She had somehow understood the human's speech and learned about their world to the best of her ability.

Though she still did not quite understand the Prima Donna (who she later learned was called Carlotta) and her strange obsession with shiny rocks and flowering plants. Though when she saw the male's who presented these rocks and plants to Carlotta she thought she understood a little better, it seemed that many human males were attempting to mate the Pima Donna and these rocks and flowers were their offerings. Though she still did not understand why they didn't just bring Carlotta rats or whatever humans ate, to show they could provide food instead of useless rocks and foliage. Vira also came to understand that her home was a place where humans made music, which was an almost completely foreign thing for a snake. The closest thing snakes had to music was the mating song which to humans just sounded like nonsensical hissing.

But Vira was not a narrow minded snake and soon came to appreciate music and was able to recognize good music when she heard it. She soon came to realize that Carlotta had no musical talent whatsoever.

So her human Erik grew up to be half monster half handsome opera patron and created the myth of the opera ghost which he then proved then to be the truth by terrorizing everyone who got in his way. Vira had long since decided that he was going to be her mate and had been trying to decide how to achieve her goal when they were two completely different species. That was what Vira had been contemplating when she had heard her human singing and crying and screaming about some human female called Christine. She was immediately alarmed, for all the time she had watched him he had never shown any interest in any of the human females above ground. She had first been so alarmed that she had begun slithering towards his island in the middle of the lake, but she had suddenly stopped to reconsider. Her human did not know her; he was most likely going to be unreceptive to a serpent that appeared out of nowhere attempting to mate him. No she couldn't go about this the snake way, she had to attempt to mate him the human way like the human males did with Carlotta. So with that in mind Vira changed direction and slithered towards Carlotta's dressing room in search of a shiny rock.

CHAPTER TWO: A PRESENT FROM A VIPER

Vira hissed the mating song under her breath as she slithered into Carlotta's dressing room though a hole in the wall. Vira flicked her tongue out to taste the air and once she had ascertained that Carlotta was indeed not present in the room moved towards the desk on top of which she knew Carlotta kept her shiny rocks. Once she managed to reach the desktop she sighed in relief, then lifting her head she was momentarily stunned when she found herself looking into an equally stunned pair of red snake eyes. In front of her was a snake that looked identical to her.

She hissed low in warning and moved back slightly as if to strike, the snake in front of her did the same, or at least it appeared to, it's tongue flicked out as if it was hissing but she heard only her own hiss. And then she tilted her head to the side in confusion this snake looked familiar, but how was that possible? The only other snakes she had ever met had been her family but they were dead now. She move slowly from side to side the other snake followed her movements exactly, and then it dawned on her, 'Oh'. It was her reflection, the only time she had ever seen it had been on the surface of the lake and even then it had been extremely blurry. She took a moment to wonder at the vanity of humans.

Now that that small mystery had been solved she moved on to finding a shiny rock for her human. Looking down on the glittering heap of rocks before her she wondered how you were supposed to pick, and which kind humans specifically liked. She remembered back to the many times Carlotta had received them. Carlotta always seemed more attracted to the males who brought her large clear rocks, Vira looked down at the assortment before her and began to sift through them many rocks with her tail. She pushed all the stones that were not clear to the side they were unimportant. Soon she had a considerably smaller pile of rocks before her; she looked at them all critically. Well she couldn't carry anything too big so she nudged the largest rock away, and she didn't want to take him the smallest so the small rock was also pushed away.

This left her with a medium sized rock shaped into a perfect sphere attached to a thin gold chain; it reminded her vaguely of a snake egg. So with the chain securely between her fangs she left the room and slithered down into the catacombs. A few moments later Carlotta let out an ear piercing shriek when she entered her room to find one of her favorite diamond necklaces missing, she punished the entire cast when she got back to the rehearsal by singing even worse than usual.

Meanwhile down in the labyrinth of stone corridor's Vira approached the lake with some apprehension, she hated being cold and being cold and wet was ten times worst but as she was about to decide she might as well go the long way around which took practically the entire day if only for the sake of staying dry a sad singing reached her ears and a mumbled "Christine." She was in the icy water in two seconds, swimming for all she was worth with the little glimmering rock in her mouth. It took her fifteen minutes and by the time she got to the other shore she was shivering and wondering if it had really been worth all the trouble. And then she saw him sitting at his organ looking forlorn and defeated, white hot fury rose in her chest and the icy bite of the lake water began to fade as she began angrily cursing the foolish human Christine for making her future mate unhappy. She slithered towards him and managed to get on top of the organ in front of him; he had not yet noticed her. She backed up a little so if he was startled he wouldn't be able to swat at her she trusted her human but if he was startled he might accidentally hit her.

Vira still holding the golden chain between her fangs while the little sparkly stone hung in front of her gave a low hiss. The effect was almost instantaneous he jumped up knocking his piano seat backwards in his haste and stared wide eyed at the white serpent before him. She stayed very still, she knew humans were rather jumpy around snakes, (she had discovered this while as she was lying on a pillow in the ballet dorms a chorus girl came in an saw her had begun screaming for help that there was a snake in her bed, Vira never entered the ballet dorms again.)

Erik had been sitting in his lair moping, though if you said that to him you were more than likely to be killed. He had been teaching Christine for years now and was discovering his feelings for her and he could clearly see that she was not interested and her only feelings for him were respect for him as her teacher and slight fear as she believed him to be an all powerful angel of music. That was not what he wanted. At first he had been overjoyed to be in love and then he had passed a mirror in the opera house and had been reminded of why no one was ever going to be able to love him with the nightmarish half of his face still present. And so enraged with the world, in love with Christine and angry at himself for forgetting his face and allowing himself to hope Erik practically flew down the corridor towards his home. He had tried to just revel in the feeling of being in love and had begun to compose a love song but had broken down into tears and began to repeat the words 'impossible' and 'Christine'. He was leaning against his organ letting the rest of his tears dry when a sudden hissing noise had echoed through the air in front of him. He had looked up into the blood red eyes of a white snake; he had reacted immediately and jumped back looking for a possible weapon while keeping his eyes focused on the serpent.

He had expected it to attack and its sudden stillness confused him, why wasn't it moving? And then a flash of gold caught his eye, what was that? As if to answer his question the snake moved forward and opened its mouth and medium sized diamond fell out and made a low 'thunk' on the wood of the organ. For once in his life Erik was completely baffled.

Vira opened her mouth and let the cumbersome rock fall from the safety of her jaws they had begun to ache slightly. A second later she wondered if she might have made a mistake she hadn't taken the time to check if the little rock had been breakable or not, and then she relaxed it seemed the shiny rocks were sturdy after all. Good, now how was her human reacting? She looked up at him expectantly; he hadn't moved and had a look of utter confusion on his face. Well at least he wasn't screaming that would have been annoying. I guess I have to encourage him; maybe he's shy or something. But that seemed unlikely, why would her human be afraid of snakes? She tilted her head at him bemused. Maybe I should back up a little give him a chance to look at it.

The snake looked at Erik and seemed to tilt its head in confusion at his lack of response. The snake backed up as if it was giving him time to get used to its presence. Erik looked between the snake and the piece of jewelry and took a step forwards to see if the reptile was trying to trick him, when it didn't move he took another step and picked up the diamond. When he held it he realized it was wet, he took another look at the snake it appeared to be soaking wet and was beginning to shiver.

"What on earth are you doing down here?" He asked the snake not at all expecting a response, and as you can imagine he was rather shocked when the serpent slithered over to a blank sheet of music paper and dipped its tail in an inkpot and began to write.

-I brought a present.

Erik nearly fell over and only regained his balance by grabbing the corner of the organ with his only free hand. He stared at the snake that seemed to be waiting for another question, so he asked,

"Who are you?" The snake dipped its tail back in the ink and wrote under its previous message,

-I am Vira.

Erik responded with,

"What are you?"

-A White water Viper.

Erik asked another question still partially in shock,

"How are you able to write can you speak?"

-I learned by watching humans, I cannot speak your tongue but I understand.

Erik sat down and stared at Vira for a moment completely stunned. And then he looked down at the diamond necklace in his hand and then back at Vira.

"Why did you bring this?" He asked holding the shimmering diamond aloft by its chain.

-I wanted to make you happy so I brought you a present.

Erik sat again stunned staring at the albino snake in front of him whose tail at the moment was dyed black with ink. Make him happy? Why on earth would a snake want to make him happy?

"Why do you want to make me happy? I will not feed you."

-I do not require your charity! The snake hissed angrily as she wrote this.

-I am perfectly capable of catching my own meals, but you were unhappy about that female and when you are unhappy I am also upset.

Erik started at the mention of a female was she talking about Christine?

"You mean Christine? Why would she make me unhappy?"

-I assumed you were attempting to mate her and she rejected your courtship. I apologize if I was wrong.

Erik looked at the viper shocked at how close to the truth she had come; of course he wasn't trying to mate her exactly his face tinged lightly with red at the thought. But in a way she was right he had attempted to court Christine and unconsciously she had rejected him through lack of interest, it stung that a reptile could guess so correctly without being personally acquainted with him. "Why are you down here?"

-I live here.

The snake replied. Erik frowned how long could Vira have been living in his domain? It couldn't have been very long or he would have noticed. So he asked, she replied.

-All my life.

Erik's frown deepened at this the snake was about two feet long and an inch wide she was either very young and would grow to be huge or she was quite old which worried him, how could a snake have hidden from him for so long without him noticing?

"How old are you?"

-I was born a year before you and Madame Giry arrived.

His eyes widened, it had been fourteen years since that night if what the snake said was true then Vira must be fifteen years old an unheard of age for a common snake to live to.

"How is that possible?"

-I believe my species are unregistered and therefore completely unknown to humans it is simply a long life span that our species have although never having known another snake of my species for their entire life span I have no actual idea.

"But what of your family, your mother must at least be here somewhere?"

-Of course not, when I was born my mother hated my appearance so vehemently she ate my brothers and sisters alive and had my father not bitten her before he left us she most likely would have eaten me as well. As it happens the venom in her blood killed her before she reached me.

Erik felt his blood run cold. A mother who hated her child's appearance so much she was willing to leave them on the streets was bad enough but to actually attempt to murder the child? Vira had been worse off than him at least he'd had a fighting chance had been lucky enough to met Marie Giry who had been his friend and had given him a home. But Vira,

"What did you do then?" He asked almost afraid of the answer.

-At the time I could not comprehend the idea that because I looked different all my brothers and sisters were put to death, so I came up with the only solution that I could live with. I decided that she had eaten them to give me a better chance at surviving and had sacrificed herself so that I wouldn't starve to death. I began to eat the corpses of my family and I ate with gratitude thinking that they had all done this for my sake.

He felt as if his heart had been torn in two refusing to comprehend such complete hatred, and then he felt slightly sick. A thought struck him; if he had been in her place would he have been able to eat his mother to survive? It felt as if his stomach was jumping up into his throat, bile rose in his mouth and he got up abruptly spinning around and ran to the lake where he began to retch in dry heaves, another thought rose unbidden into his mind, I wonder if it would taste good? And his meager lunch had left his body to become part of the lake, his mind was screaming as he imagined a faceless woman begin to shove faceless children down her throat while smiling a toothless grin. A few more dry heaves and he was empty. More than his stomach had begun to feel hallow, he straightened up trembling and attempted to clean himself up slightly. He turned to the white snake who still sat on top of his organ tail poised as if about to write, he met Vira's eyes they were a darker red. He sat down again. And realized another line had been added to the page, he leaned over and read,

-I apologize if you are disgusted by my very existence as well. I will leave if you desire it.

"No it's not you it's just…" He trailed off unsure of what to say.

-I understand.

He sighed in relief and then another less repulsive question popped into his head,

"What's wrong with the way you look?"

-I was born into a family of Black water Vipers, they were a pure-blood family and all their ancestors had been completely black I am albino they lost all honor and prestige the moment I was born. And besides all that I am ugly.

"Oh, I understand the black and albino part but you certainly aren't ugly! I think you're a beautiful snake." He added softly, it wasn't like him to give complements.

-I thank you for your kindness.

The serpent said lowering her head in gratitude, he frowned slightly at that but said nothing for a moment and then he asked another question.

"Where do you sleep?"

-My nest, it is only across the lake in a hole in the wall.

He tilted his head to the side in thought, before asking

"Can I see it?"

-Of course! But it isn't very grand not at all like your nest.

The snake said looking around in awe for a moment, Erik laughed slightly at his home being called a nest. The snake slithered down the organ her tail pressing a few keys on the way down and made her way over to the shore and looked around a moment wondering if Erik had to swim to get anywhere. He walked up behind Vira holding the paper and inkwell in his hands he then said,

"Would you like to take the boat?" He looked down at the white snake a watched as she bobbed her head up and down fervently not wanting to get wet again. He chuckled and picked her up carefully; she curled around his arm like a snake bracelet and sat perfectly still looking at Erik. Their eyes met and locked for a moment, Erik looked away and got into the boat silently. He gripped the oar and pushed them off into the dark mist.

**Authors note**

**Hey readers loopy here, I'm going through all my fics editing hope I got all the errors here! Enjoy!**

**-loopycathair signing off!**


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